Photo by Nelson Beyer, USGS Patuxent Wildlife
Research Center
After
resting for a day or more, the chick will begin to chip away at the star
pip until he's made a hole about the size of a dime. This is called the
hole pip. We can see the chick's beak and part of his face through this
hole, and we can see him breathing. He also sounds much louder when he
peeps. Once the chick has opened up the hole pip, he'll then methodically
chip away at the large end of the shell in a line around the egg, turning
completely around as he goes. He's cutting the top of the egg off, the way
you would if you were eating a soft-boiled egg. It looks like this would
be the hardest job of hatching, removing the top of the whole egg, but
most chicks finish this task in less than an hour, then kick their way
out. This is how a cut-out egg looks:
Photo by Nelson Beyer, USGS Patuxent Wildlife
Research Center
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